Army of Demons
by XenArgon
Summary: Actually this should be based on Hoshi no Kaabii but there's no entry for it. This is backstory about Holy Nightmare Enterprise and Meta Knight, set before the show and even before the war at first.
1. Chapter 1

"Even though I've checked it a hundred times... there's obviously still something wrong. I just can't figure out what..."

The customer service representative and only salesperson of the Holy Nightmare Company sat in front of the massive screen, staring at countless diagrams and lines of code. It had taken well over 30 years to develop a machine capable of creating living beings in just seconds, but of course, now Nightmare was rejecting most of the creatures they made due to their lack of strength. Most of them never even woke up before he destroyed them.

"... I'll do a diagnoatic run again, is that okay?"

Nightmare stared down at the white table at the base of the machine, just floating there.

"As many as it takes."

The salesperson stood up and began flipping switches and hitting all sorts of buttons in the room, and the device began to emit a low hum.

"Alright... starting."

He switched a large lever on the console, and the machine began to emit a brilliant light, only lasting for a few seconds before fading away and going quiet. On the table laid a small creature, similar to some sort of purple bug. Despite being unconscious, it still managed to look absolutely miserable.

"We.. might need to replace the- wait..."

Nightmare, who was staring down at the creature, turned to look at the salesperson. He, whose almost desperate expression was hidden by his sunglasses, continued to stare at the multiple screens around him.

"This... I think I might have found it."

Nightmare's own expression turned into a subtle smile. He turned back toward the still sleeping creature and held his hand over it. In even less time than it was created, the being was destroyed in a similar burst of light from Nightmare's hand.

"Reset the machine." he said. "If you have found something, I want to know about it today."

"Of course."

"I've waited too long for this."

It didn't take too long to reset the device, but the single salesman spent what seemed like ages just calibrating it, testing it repeatedly. After several months of pointless testing, the possibility of success seemed like a distant miracle up until now. Within four hours, the whole contraption was ready again, and once again Nightmare was present, floating in the middle of the large room next to what was commonly referred to as the genesis machine.

"You believe this will work?" he asked.

"After all this time... I hope so."

He switched the lever, and the genesis machine once again came to life. With a light brighter than the time before, and with a few more seconds of blaring noise, the device settled down again, this time revealing a massive purple form which promptly causes the table it lies on to collapse. The room was silent for at least a minute as the observers both turn to look at each other, then stare back down at the large insect lying on the floor. The customer service person was the first to speak.

"... It was so simple.. I don't know how I missed it. I apologize.."

"Apologize? This is nothing to apologize for."

Nightmare floated up to the large being and snapped his fingers, instantly waking it up. Its eyes darted around, scanning its surroundings before climbing to its feet. It backed away from the two hesitantly, as if unsure of what to do. Nightmare's expression turned into a freakish grin.

"Show me what you can do, yes?"

The salesman backed away from him, hiding his own sly grin. Nightmare threw his cape back, and the purple creature stared, mesmerized, at the seemingly empty space in the inside of his cape. Before its beauty could even hope to be appreciated, however, the mysterious figure formed a ball of energy with his hands and threw it at the newly created being. It, surprisingly enough, dashed forward toward the blast upon seeing that it was an attack, and with its enormous pincers, grabbed the ball of energy itself. Not a second later it jumped toward Nightmare, sending the energy down into the ground in front of him. It exploded with a burst of light, and the giant insect backed away, revealing Nightmare still floating there, unscathed. He began to laugh quietly, for probably the first time in several decades.

"Ah.. hahah.. This one will be named Bugzzy. Tomorrow... we begin realizing the true purpose of this company."

"If we can, that is." the salesman said hesitantly. "There's no telling what might happen when we try it with a different template."

"I trust in your abilities. We've gotten past the most difficult part of the process."

An unfamiliar voice spoke out a moment later.

"What about me?"

Nightmare and his single employee looked at Bugzzy again, both having realized that he was actually the one that spoke. Nightmare's unnerving smile hadn't wavered in the slightest.

"You will be taken care of, my friend. You are only the first of many."

"Many what?"

"Manifestations of nightmares, forming an army of the most powerful beings to have ever existed... Yes... An army of demons."

The next several days seemed only as a blur. Bugzzy was soon surrounded by other demons, including Chilly, several generic fighters mainly meant to cause trouble, and an octopus. In addition to this, several other workers were created, solely for the purposes of taking care of the other demons, and official HNM transporter devices had begun distribution, although there were very few customers who bought one. Within two weeks, there were already several trainers created to strengthen the growing number of demons. Within the month, Kirisakin had been sent off to retrieve Galaxia, and the Holy Nightmare Company had amassed the start of an army. It wasn't soon after Kirisakin's release that the company started the war that would last for nearly two millennia.

The official start of the war occurred on December 5th. After constructing two of the most powerful battleships known to the galaxy, namely the Destroyer Vita and the Destroyer Crusade, both vessels were loaded with demons significantly stronger than most warriors at the time, and the two ships laid siege unexpectedly on the civilian capital. The majority of the civilians were evacuated, but based on the sheer amount of force even the small group of demons managed to exert, war was waged against the mysterious attack force within the week. Thus, the Galaxy Soldier Army was called into action, and the elite band of Star Warriors quickly became idolized by most civilians, who were besieged by a sudden wave of inexplicably powerful creatures.


	2. Chapter 2

"The news came in." said the messenger. Customer Service didn't even turn around to face the small blue worker, but turned his head slightly as acknowledgement.

"Three of the four attacks have succeeded without any problems."

"And the fourth?" said the salesman.

"Well... I hate to say this but we've encountered some... insubordination."

"To what degree?"

"Commander told the group to retreat when the ships came in, one of them ignored orders and got the others to do the same, and they were all killed."

"Is the commander alive?"

"No."

"Good. Otherwise he would have to face Nightmare himself."

There was a moment of silence, and the messenger left. The form of Nightmare faded into view next to Customer Service, and he turned to face him.

"I heard your exchange." he said. The salesman instantly attained a somewhat concerned expression, and stared down at the floor.

"This is the fifth case of disobedience so far. It's becoming more common, and we're losing a lot of forces because of it."

"We'll just have to add in a failsafe."

".. How? They're living creatures."

"They're tools. They may be alive, but they live to serve a purpose. If we can make them more easily controllable, that may be all that is required."

More easily controllable, he thought. How was that even possible? Of course, this ended up manifesting in a certain frequency that could basically mind-control some of the more powerful demons, although it had the secondary effect of causing inexplicable fatigue, and was less effective when used repeatedly. Nightmare faded away from sight, and the salesman turned back toward the collection of computer screens, only to see the face of one of his customers pop up.

"How can I help you?"

A respectable-looking man stared up at him through the screen, with white skin and a golden crown atop his head.

"Please.. these creatures have invaded, fires have spread across half the country.."

"You need something to help fight monsters or to help fight fires?"

"Well... Both!"

"Certainly. You'll recieve your delivery in a moment." he said with a reassuring smile, before hitting a button and cutting the communication. The company itself was always referred to as HNE, and the few people that bought from them always had assumed it to be an abbreviation of last names. He turned to the worker at his side.

"Send for Laneri.". The worker nodded and walked off. About thirty seconds later, a blue dragon, while seeming somewhat infantile, appeared on one of their small warp platforms, along with its trainer, who brought it forward. Customer Service jumped down off of his chair and looked at the creature.

"Laneri, you are to flood the city you find, and then return if you can."

It reared up onto its hind legs and let out a happy cry, only to be interrupted by its trainer snapping the whip it held, but not striking it. It lowered its head in fear and walked forward and stepped onto the transporter platform, and within a few seconds it was gone, the first demon to be sent via transporter. Despite what you would imagine, the flood Laneri brought with it was not terrible, as it only summoned an unusual amount of rain. Thus, their first customer continued to purchase several more demons for the company before the order was sent to destroy the kingdom entirely.

The company's failures were always reported, and were always addressed within the week if possible. Three years went by with very few problems in business or in the war, and then Nightmare shifted his focus elsewhere. Instead of creating large numbers of 'normal' demons, he began to focus on creating extraordinary ones, and so demons like Kracko and the Devil Frog came about, while the numbers in the army slowly fell. These creatures, for some reason, took longer to wake up from their initial sleep than others. Of course, with this shift in mindset, eventually Nightmare stopped production altogether and began working to create perfection.

Masher and Dark Nebula were his first two attempts. With incredible amounts of power, both could easily destroy entire cities on their own, but still something seemed to be missing. Neither of them were necessarily intelligent, and their attacks were predictable as a result.

Nightmare and the salesman both stood/floated in the room with their genesis machine, the former watching as the other began working at the console nearby. He switched the lever, and the device came to life, emitting an unusually bright amount of light for an unusually long period of time. The salesman glanced at Nightmare, but he merely stared into the light. It faded after a few more moments, and they instead stared at the being it had created. It was blue in color, with arms and legs made of metal blades. In addition, purple wings draped across the table and hung across the edges. Nightmare smiled, and looked down at his assistant.

"Come, it will be a while before this one wakes up."

They turned away from the machine and began to walk away, when a noise caught their attention. They turned and went back into the room to find the being standing there, holding himself upright with a nearby table.

"You awoke more quickly than I thought."

Yellow eyes stared back at him.

"Who are you?"

"Me.. I am Nightmare. I control an army of powerful creatures like yourself. You are Meta Knight. You are my greatest creation... you probably do not even realize your own power yet."

He scanned the room, quickly noticing the lack of any exit.

"Are you imprisioning me?"

"No, of course not."

Meta Knight turned his gaze to the salesman, who took several steps back, before looking at Nightmare again.

"If you're not imprisioning me, then let me go."

Nightmare laughed for a moment, causing Meta Knight's glare to grow even more hostile.

"You are not free either."

"Then why am I here?"

"... To lead my army."

"Why."

Nightmare stared at him for a long, silent moment.

"You're questioning me?"

Meta Knight lifted one of his blade arms and pointed it at Nightmare.

"I'm not about to follow your orders just because you make them. I don't even know who you are."

Nightmare's expression only grew in annoyance. He floated some distance away from the figure and held out his hand, too. Having noticed this, the salesman practically sprinted out of the way, immediately catching the attention of Meta Knight. Nightmare, however, took the moment to throw a blaring ball of energy at him. In a split second he lept forward, slashing it in half. When the light finally died down, Nightmare's expression turned into one of utter horror.

"How... did you survive that!?"

Meta Knight could only glare at him.

"You'd kill me just because I don't want to blindly follow your orders?"

He glanced down at the already intimidated salesman, then back up at Nightmare, who slowly composed himself. The floating figure never once took his gaze off of the demon.

"So be it." he said. "This is a space station, you cannot leave. But take the time to walk around. See what I'm offering you."

Meta Knight looked over at the door as it opened, then looked again at the cowering salesman and left the room. After making sure he had left, Customer Service finally looked at Nightmare.

"You're insane! What are you going to do if he comes back here to kill you!?"

"Relax, he won't. I'll make sure of that."

The salesman stared silently at him, realizing that even Nightmare hadn't prepared for anything quite like this.


	3. Chapter 3

The most notable thing about Nightmare's space fortress was how much open space there was. It seemed pointless, especially given the fact that the open space wasn't even in the form of a single, large room. Meta Knight looked up at the ceiling as he walked out into one of these areas, and flew up into the air, landing on one of the support beams in the ceiling. Nothing in particular seemed interesting, but he could see the walls of the giant room, stretching even farther than he had imagined. He walked along the beams for a while, heading toward what at least appeared to be the center of the room. It was hard to tell, given the size of the room, but he looked down to find a somewhat large group of other demons walking along a pathway, led by a single, much smaller being carrying a whip. One of them, a green cat-like demon with three tails appearing to be vines, growled at another one when it drew closer to it. The leader of the group immediately turned around, meeting the gaze of the green cat. The other demons backed away as much as they could, being surrounded by metallic walls, and the leader snapped its whip at the leafy cat, which resulted in a sickening cry to emanate through the room. To follow the commands of such a weak creature, Meta Knight thought, seemed unnatural. He swung down from the metal beam and fell just behind the trainer, although not silently due to the fact that his legs were metal. It turned around to face him, holding the whip ready.

"Where are you supposed to be?" it asked.

"What qualifies you to control this group?"

The leader seemed somewhat surprised upon hearing him speak.

"I was chosen."

"By who?"

"Nightmare."

"Could you kill anyone in this group?"

"Eh?"

Meta Knight glared at him.

"Are you strong enough to kill anyone in this group?"

"I-I don't fight, I just-"

"Then you don't deserve to command these creatures."

"Shut up!"

The trainer lifted his whip again, but with a single slice from Meta Knight it laid on the ground in pieces. He glanced past the trainer at the group of demons who watched with curiosity.

"You have been tricked into believing that your power has no value."

A few of the demons tilted their heads.

"What are you waiting for!?" he screamed. "Show your strength!"

The group began to roar and scream, and the trainer was torn apart several seconds later.

They had attacked with much more ferocity than he had anticipated. He pushed his way through the small group, prompting the demons to move away from him, and he stared down at the mark on the floor where the trainer had been. He turned around again to look at the group, although determining what emotions he felt was impossible.

"Are there more of them?"

The group began to roar again, and they ran along one of the passageways before he could do anything to stop them. He flew up into the air and glided alongside them, watching where they were going. After a few minutes, this destination was revealed to be another large room, although still much smaller than the atrium. Unlike the atrium, however, this room had a single floor, upon which multiple demons attacked each other until trainers pulled them aside to keep them from dying. The group spread out, each demon attacking a different trainer. The ones already in the room stopped and stared at them before joining as well. Meta Knight could only stand there and watch the incredible amount of bloodshed. He glanced up at a security camera and for a moment considered what to do about the situation. On the one hand, he had just caused a riot that was now resulting in the violent murders of trainers whose innocence was impossible to determine. On the other, Nightmare had clearly put in place an inefficient system, if such a simple question as 'why' could spark a revolt. In the end, he decided that Nightmare should address his mistakes, and he flew at the camera and sliced it in half.

A panicked worker ran up to Customer Service. Noticing this, he turned around in his chair to face the small being.

"Yes-"

"There's a huge commotion going on downstairs! I don't know how many trainers have already died but-"

"What?!"

He turned back around to face the screens, and pulled up the security footage of a horde of demons running into the training area, followed by Meta Knight. He buried his face in his hands.

"He's way more of a problem than I thought possible… thank you, you can leave now."

The worker hesitantly made its way out of the room, and Nightmare appeared next to the salesman a moment later, obviously bothered.

"I don't understand…" the salesman said. "He barely escapes death somehow, and then not ten minutes later he leads a riot of our demons and murders sixteen trainers… Why?"

"… It's understandable."

He turned to look at Nightmare, although he didn't dare say anything.

"He is expected to follow orders without reason, just as the rest of these creatures are. It's simple, he just wants a reason, and I can give him that much."

Before Customer Service could object, the floating form of Nightmare faded again.

Meta Knight continued to just stare at the battle taking place, knowing very well that it had gotten completely out of control. He glanced down at the almost unrecognizable body of one of the trainers, and the whip next to it. He picked it up and looked at it for a moment before snapping it, immediately catching the attention of every demon in the room. They all turned to look at him, and the room went completely silent.

"Listen to me. This has gotten out of hand. I certainly didn't mean for you to murder your trainers out of spite, that's not the right reason."

"Is there a right reason?"

He turned around to notice Nightmare floating behind him some distance.

"Are you going to try to kill me again? Clearly that didn't work for you last time."

"No, although I do intend to fight you."

This elicited no response from Meta Knight.

"If you're so obsessed with strength, then I will be glad to show you the power I hold."

Meta Knight dropped the whip at his side, and within seconds he lept up into the air and had flung a beam of light toward Nightmare. This was only met with a faint smile before he opened his cape and absorbed the energy entirely. Meta Knight, having landed on the ground, looked around at the dimensions of the room and flew through the doors at a rather ridiculous speed, lifting himself off of the ground once he reached the massive space of the atrium. Nightmare, of course, followed him a moment later.

"Are you running?" said the ghostly figure.

"I'm flying. That room is too small."

Meta Knight climbed up into the ceiling again, although he had to run along the support beams again in order to avoid a blast of energy. He jumped off, allowing himself to fall almost all the way to the ground before throwing his wings out again and taking off at a speed that should be impossible for living creatures. He held his arm out to the side as he flew at Nightmare from one side, managing to cut one of his hands without actually touching him, but just by using the air as a blade. Nightmare looked at his hand, then threw another blast of energy in what seemed to be a random direction, although it managed to hit Meta Knight and send him hurtling toward the ground. Just before he hit the floor, however, a purple light surrounded him and stopped his descent. Nightmare once again teleported next to him as he got to his feet again.

"Everything has a weakness. And I happen to know yours. You might be fast, but you could never survive an attack with my full power."

"Bullshit."

He snapped his fingers, causing a bolt of lightning to jump from his hand toward Meta Knight, and after a very brief moment the knight fell to the ground, unconscious.

"I hope that's reason enough for you."


	4. Chapter 4

Nightmare and Customer Service watched silently as the unconscious Meta Knight was very promptly thrown into a locked room.

"Why haven't you killed him yet?" asked the salesman.

"Because… if we can manage to get him on our side, he could be incredibly valuable."

"And if we can't? Excuse me for saying this, but how many deaths is it going to take?"

"Deaths? Our forces are entirely disposable. However many demons he kills has no effect on us, but the moment he starts destroying parts of the station is when he dies."

The deaths, however, did not just include the trainers. Every demon that had already been swayed no longer obeyed any commands, and so all of them were terminated too. By the end of that day, Meta Knight had successfully managed to passively kill 62 demons. This number, of course, meant more to the salesman than it did to Nightmare, but such a massacre had never really happened to the company before, not even in the midst of their war, or at least not all in one day.

It took a while for Meta Knight to wake up again and, once again, come to the realization that he was being imprisoned. He didn't try to escape, though. He at least had the decency to accept the fact that he made a mistake in challenging Nightmare. Thankfully though it wasn't long before Nightmare appeared in the room again, hiding any expression he could have held. Meta Knight stayed silent; he didn't dare be the first to speak. It would have shown weakness.

"Apparently you're very… persuasive."

"While I never meant for that sort of violence… your system is obviously flawed."

"I can see that now."

There was a somewhat awkward silence, but Nightmare was once again the first to speak.

"Considering the fact that you're both incredibly destructive and insightful somehow… I would like to appoint you as a trainer."

Again, Meta Knight remained silent, but still kept his gaze fixed on Nightmare.

"If you don't accept I'll be forced to kill you."

"Some decision."

Nightmare glared at him.

"It was by pure luck that you managed to survive the first time I tried to kill you… this was merely to show you that I have powers far greater than you could ever imagine."

"I suppose I have no choice then."

"You always have a choice. Your options are just unfavorable."

Since it really wasn't much of a choice, he agreed, and for the following months he worked as a trainer. He was much more lenient about genuine mistakes than some of the others, but any hint of disobedience ended violently, and despite the occasional demons he killed himself, he was actually rather good at what he did. Still, given the fact that he never really fought anything himself, he got bored of it rather quickly, and so it wasn't long before Nightmare decided to let him lead a team to besiege another world. This decision was made mostly out of fear that Meta Knight would start destroying things again.

It was sometime in June when this particular attack began, and despite Nightmare's best efforts to hide it, the Galaxy Soldier Army had become aware of it and had set up defenses around that particular kingdom. This never affected Nightmare's decisions, since his war was mostly to show power and not necessarily to destroy things, but one early morning a massive ship arrived. The ship's commander was Captain Vul, although his duties didn't branch far from keeping the ship intact. Their ship was smaller than the Destroyers and lacked the legendary firepower, but it had cloaking technology that allowed it to touch down without the opposition even realizing it. Almost as soon as the ship landed, the horde of demons in the cargo bay began roaring and screaming and running toward the door, actually trampling some of the smaller creatures in the group. This was only stopped when Meta Knight flung a ball of energy at the ceiling, exploding violently but keeping the ship intact. He stared back at the now quiet group, obviously annoyed.

"I should kill every one of you for that. But, since I can't, all I can say is that you need to stay quiet. This isn't like other sieges. If we can attack them without them knowing… as unlikely as that is at this point…"

He glared at one particular demon that lowered its head in fear.

"… then we'll be able to do a lot more damage in less time. Do you understand me?"

There was complete silence.

"Good."

He looked down at a worker, who began panicking under the weight of his stare before realizing what it was supposed to do. It hit a button, lowering a ramp down to the ground. The group walked outside, although Meta Knight just stared up at the sky. This was the first time he had ever been outside of Nightmare's fortress, and he had no idea what other planets even looked like, although he never quite realized that fully until he found himself staring at… everything. For some reason, though, the idea that the sky lacked a ceiling was still the strangest concept of all. He wasn't the only one, either. It was clear that the others in the group hadn't been outside the fortress either, given the way they looked at everything with curiosity while trying not to touch any of it. The planet they had arrived on still had vegetation and intact buildings, although everything was silent. An entire city had been evacuated and left merely as a shell of what it was. The group wandered through countless streets just observing the area as the sun slowly rose in the sky. Unfortunately, they were discovered first. A single rocket flew down at them, and several of the demons weren't able to jump out of the way. They exploded just as the rocket did, which only did more damage to the surrounding area. The others looked up at the source, high up in one of the buildings. Some of them were able to fly; the rest immediately ran inside to make their way up to the higher floors. Meta Knight at this point had no control over the group, which was okay, but he looked around at the surrounding buildings, wondering if they weren't occupied too. His question was quickly answered when a turret began raining bullets down on the group. He quickly flew out of the way, although one of the other demons exploded nearby. Fireballs pummelled the first building, sending shards of glass down to the ground but also revealing the Galaxy Soldier Army members inside. They had set up an amazing amount of weapons; rocket launchers, more turrets, and what were later revealed to be explosives. They all wore armor, but still looked surprisingly weak to have been the main opposition in this war. The demon that had thrown fireballs at them grabbed one with its talons and threw him down to the ground, eliciting horrifying screams from the others in the building. The turrets roared to life again, and the demon that hovered before them exploded a moment later. The armored person it had thrown to the ground did, in fact, reach the ground, but laid there unmoving after his impact. Meta Knight looked up at the second building next to which he was standing, and he jumped into the air and began to fly upward, past the turrets and past the top of the building entirely. When he reached a suitable altitude he instead let himself fall back toward the ground, although he directed himself away from the building. At the last possible moment he spread his wings out again, and in a split second he flew directly through the building, slicing the turret in half as he did so.

The demons that had climbed their way up through the other building finally reached their destination, and despite the best efforts of the army forces, they were all but massacred. The others could only watch as their entire, admittedly small line of defense was being completely destroyed. They weren't about to surrender, though, and the group that remained instead grabbed their rocket launchers and grenades. One of them even kicked the broken pieces of the turret out of the window, although it didn't hit anything. Only three members of that team actually had rocket launchers, but they were certainly put to good use. Just as the demons in the other building began to descend again, one of these rockets hit the floor alongside them, causing the five larger demons to be flung back and the other smaller ones to explode. There were several others still flying around the area. One in particular had had nothing to do with the fight thus far, and, having noticed this, Meta Knight once again ascended into the clouds. He could still able to tell where the specific demon was even though he couldn't see it, and he sent a glowing beam of energy back down toward it as he, too, began to fall as well. Just as he fell out of the clouds again, the creature exploded, and he flew directly through the blast as he contined to dive toward the ground. He had more forward momentum this time, which only resulted in a faster speed when he spread his wings again, heading toward the same building. He was still several miles away from it, although at the speed he was going it didn't really mean much. He held his arm out as it began to glow with energy, and when he finally flew by building he swung, sending a shockwave of energy through the entire floor. This energy, as previously described, acted as a blade of air that managed to kill every person in on that floor almost instantaneously. The downside to this, however, was that one particular person on a lower floor happened to be one of the three people with a rocket launcher, and this person happened to fire at the precise moment needed to successfully hit Meta Knight as he passed. While the explosion didn't do much to him, it did manage to set one of his wings on fire, which, unfortunately, sent him spiraling to the ground at nearly 200 miles an hour.

The person holding the rocket launcher lowered it, surprised that the attack made out of desperation managed to hit. He looked back at the other two soldiers in the room, who were still pleading for him to leave with them while they still could. He finally dropped his rocket launcher, and the group turned around only to find a horde of demons staring back at them, silent. They began to back away toward the open windows, and the demons followed them. One of the soldiers looked at the other two as she produced what looked to be a remote control device. The others nodded, although slowly, and at that moment they stopped moving. At that moment, all fear seemed to escape from them.

And, at that moment, she hit the button, causing both buildings to explode.


End file.
